At what SG does mead start tasting sweet

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Izzie1701

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Maybe a dumb question but at what SG does mead start to taste sweet. I am looking to back sweetened my first mead. It is drier then dry right now. Sitting at around .995. I want to calculate about how much honey to add to it to make it semi sweet. I don't want it ice wine sweet but I do want it sweet. What's a good SG to shoot for as a starting point? I know I'll have to taste it but I would like to get some idea about how much honey to add.

Thank you,
 
Semi-sweet would be in the 1.005-1.010 range. It is best to do a bench trial in a glass first to determine how sweet you like it.
 
loveofrose said:
Semi-sweet would be in the 1.005-1.010 range. It is best to do a bench trial in a glass first to determine how sweet you like it.
Click to expand...

That's a good rule of thumb.

And personal taste is really individual. I don't eat things with sugar (not even ketchup) and I hate sweet things, so something at 1.010 might be overly sweet to me, but not even taste that sweet to you.

So, it's best to start lower and work up to the level you want.
 
I agree. 1.010 is a good starting point.

But it's also good idea to test the acid levels. Acid levels can impact perceived sweetness.

I have a blackberry mead that's 1.024 FG, but it's fairly acidic, and many people perceive it as semi sweet.
 
Yooper said:
That's a good rule of thumb.

And personal taste is really individual. I don't eat things with sugar (not even ketchup) and I hate sweet things, so something at 1.010 might be overly sweet to me, but not even taste that sweet to you.

So, it's best to start lower and work up to the level you want.
Click to expand...
Indeed!!! You can always add more, but can't take it back if you add too much...applies to much of life
 
Izzie1701 said:
Maybe a dumb question but at what SG does mead start to taste sweet. I am looking to back sweetened my first mead. It is drier then dry right now. Sitting at around .995. I want to calculate about how much honey to add to it to make it semi sweet. I don't want it ice wine sweet but I do want it sweet. What's a good SG to shoot for as a starting point? I know I'll have to taste it but I would like to get some idea about how much honey to add.

Thank you,
Click to expand...

I don't disagree with anything said so far, and adding about 4 oz of sugar (or honey) per gallon will increase the gravity by about 10 points... but ... have you tasted your mead yet? Even when a mead is as dry as yours is if it is nicely balanced in terms of flavor, acidity and the level of alcohol it could still taste surprisingly sweet. But I drink my coffee unsweetened and I cannot drink commercial sodas as I find them cloyingly sweet
 
What yeast did you use? I tried Wyeast's sweet mead yeast with the 3lbs/gallon ratio and wow was it to freaking sweet, but with a dry wine yeast and using the same ratio I got some super dry mead.
 
It's like a dry white wine with no sweetness. Has very little apple flavor either. I took a few samples and sweetened with apple juice and honey and they were awesome. Going to back sweeten to 1.005 and go from there.

I used lavalin 1118
 

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